Word of the Day – “der Bock”

and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we’ll take a look at the meaning of

der Bock (pron.: bock)

Bock originally comes from the animal kingdom and there are similar words throughout all Germanic languages. The English counterpart is buck. Now, I am not an expert in uh … I think it’s called ‘animal botany’… but I think the German Bock is refers mainly to a male goat… also know as he-goat.Wait… he-goat? Is that a joke? No? Oh there is he-cat too? Does that mean that I can say he-cow or he-snake? Or he-woman? Or even he-man with the power of not one but 2 swo…. aaaaanywaaaaays.

So, Bock by itself is a male goatbut it can be used a few other animals too such as Rehbock(roebuck) or Steinbock, which is both, the animal and the zodiac sign).

“Was bist für’n Sternzeichen.”
“Ich bin Steinbock.”

“What zodiac sign are you?”
“I’m a Capricorn.”

Now, what’s interesting about Bockis the fact that German is using the word for quite a number of other things…. just like it did with the word der Vogel. I don’t know about other languages but seems to me that German really likes using animal names. So… let’s start looking at all the different meanings.
In gymnastics class a Bock can be a nightmare for people. It was for me. Run towards it, jump on the spring board and then smash against it and sprain your ankle… oh the horror. What I am talking about is the vaulting horse (some pictures) and the leap over it is called Bocksprung (leapfrog). Now, I never understood what the point of Bocksprungis because I NEVER jump over stuff that way in daily life … but what I do know is the purpose of the next Bock.
You need it if you want to work with wood or metal and again, just like with the sports-Bock, English is using the word horse for it… der (Säge)bockis the sawing horse (some pictures).
Now… I know that these 2 Bocks are already incredibly fascinating and you can’t wait to get out and use them in conversation but there is an even more useful Bock.

Bock is a colloquial term for die Lust in sense of desire or appetite. Why does Bock mean that? Well, some claim that this one comes from Rothwelsh and it was a Romani word for hunger (bokh) so it has nothing to do with the animal. My etymological dictionary, however, suggests a different origin which can be summarized like this (the persons talking are the common conscious of all Germans of different centuries)

“A Bock is and shall alway be a male goat.”

“Hey…uhm… I have a funny idea. I have observed that male goats
want to mate with female goats quite often so let’s call a man with a
beard who constantly wants to mate with females a Bock“

“That’s cool… hey how about we say the lust of such a man is a Bock… so he has Bock.”

“Oh that sounds groovy… let’s be crazy and just not care what the
man wants or that it’s a man to begin with… let’s just always say that
we have Bock if we want something.”

And that’s where we are today. Bock haben is a very very very frequently used way to say to want something.

“Hey, I am going to the concert of Milton Freedman. Wanne come?”
“Nah, not interested.”

So… is Bockslang? The answer is a clear no. Bock maybe used to be limited to school yards while the parents would use Lust in all those examples but not anymore. Lust sounds so … behaved. Bock has made quite a career and it is now pretty common.
The young Left uses it a lot:

Even a whole generation is named after the “I don’t care”-attitude they display – die Null-bock-generation. By the way… null Bock literally means zero desire or NOT interested and opposite extreme would be voll Bock … you can’t say viel Bock. Why not? Pshhhh, why should I care.
So… I’d say we could call this want to – Bock commonly accepted by now. You shouldn’t use it when you’re talking with your professor or with the police in any formal situation but with friends it’s all right. Even my mom says it every now and then.
Now, all the examples so far were rather short… so here is a longer one.

“Why on earth are you so mad?”
“Well, I simply have absolutelyno desire to do the whole presentation alone like last time and then you waltz out of class with an A without having done a thing.”

What’s that? Oh no no.. this is real… this is how people talk. We do use THAT many particles in one sentence. I’d even say that I use the combination “halt einfach mal voll keinen Bock fairly often… but I don’t want start talking about particles… you can just take the whole thing and say it to a German friend and maybe they be be baffled by how genuine you sound :).
Now, before we get to the last Bock and some other Bock-words, we should take a quick look at the grammar. You have probably noticed that I always used the preposition aufin the examples. Just like Lust or Appetit, Bockonly works with aufor with a zu-construction … so … here are the 3 possible:

All right now on to the nex…. oh, wait, I almost forgot to mention that this Bock can mean fun too. The phrasing is Bock machenand it is a colloquial Spaß machen.

Das Computerspiel macht voll Bock.

The game is a lot of fun.

“Wie war’s die Achterbahnfahrt?”
“War cool, hat Bock gemacht.“

“How was the roller-coaster ride?”
“Great, it was fun.”

I don’t know how it feels to you but for me Bock haben and Bock machen is kind of the same Bock…

at least compared to the Bock that means mistake. It is not used much but you can see or hear it in the media so if you do and the other Bocks do not make sense – don’t be confused. This mistake-bockis also the base for the verb verbockenwhich is basically to screw up.

Wer hat das verbockt?

Who’s fault is that?

but this word isn’t used much eit… oh, what’s that you ask? Oh you want to know whyyyyyyy Bockmeans mistake? Well, it is basically hunters jargon. When they had there shooting competitions the looser would get a literal Bock as a consolation gift because…uh he-goats suck as a price I guess but hey… who cares… let’s get to the nice refreshing, inspiring, tasty, sparkling, amber colored, the ability to drive a car or operate heavy machinery impairing one… the

Bockbier

Bockbier is a kind of Bier. It is not THAT common and I have never seen it sold in a bar, neither on tap nor bottled, but you can get it at any grocery store.
No matter what brand, it will always have Bockbier on the label and, guess what, a male goat. The origin of the same are different though. It was first brewed in a town of Northern Germany called Einbeck. From there, it made its way to Munich and the Bavarian dialect changed Einbeck into “oambock” and eventually just “bock”.
Now, the difference between Bock and normal beer is the percentage by volume (PV) of alcohol. For Bockbier it is usually around 7 while normal beer has 5. So Bock is a rather strong beer and the taste is definitely something to get used to. But it has definitely grown on me… and I don’t mean belly-wise… badum tish…. so I suggest you give it a try.
A few months ago I bought a beer that had 14 percent by volume. That makes it stronger than wine… and it was basically like a liqueur. What was really interesting is the way it was made… they brew the beer as strong as possible. Then the yeast dies because the alcohol content is too high. So then they freeze the beer. Water freezes at higher temperatures than alcohol so they have a ice-beer-mix which they then pour through nylons – those socks women are wearing- thus separating the ice and the beer that now has a higher percentage…. yummie.
And 14 is just the start… there are reports of up to 70 percent per volume out there.
Now, Germany is not only known for its beer but also for its neighboring countries cuisine so naturally there is also a very fancy dish with Bockin it.

Slowly steamed for hours in boiling water from the spring of Tap,
served on a elegantly shaped gray-white cardboard plate that is only
used this one time, accompanied by a delicate, golden colored sauce
that creatively combines mustard seeds and vinegar as well as a side
of oven-baked refined wheat-dust comes:

die Bockwurst

Seriously though… Bockwurst has this name because people in Bavaria liked to eat it with their Bockbier. It is a sausage that is cooked and subsequently sits in hot water for a whole day before you finally buy it because the gas station has nothing else to offer you. Sometimes I really feel like getting one but I know that after half of it I will feel a slight nausea. If any of you out there has eaten one… was it the same for you or am I just weird???

Anyway… I think we’re done for today actually. I mean technically we’re not. There is still the word bockig and there is also an interesting phenomenon about the fun-Bock and cases but I’ll stop anyway because … Ich hab’ kein’n Bock mehr :).
But I have one more picture for you that sums up a lot … here. When you know that Kölsch is a very light beer then this is witty on 3 levels.
Alright, if you have any questions or suggestions or if you want to share your Bockwurst story with us just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.

haha, it means what I think you think it means (thanks for the lecture about beer) :)… you could just say Bierlektion though and use the power of compound nouns. And as for the mistake… consider it removed :)

It sounds funny to native speakers too. :) I think “he/she-goat” might be the most commonly recognized of those because the King James Bible translated the Hebrew terms for male and female goats that way. “She-wolf” is familiar from the myth of Romulus and Remus. Most other common animals have specific names for males and females, respectively, though you don’t hear a lot of those from people who aren’t specialists – it’s always funny to hear dog-show people refer to an animal as a “bitch” with a straight face.

Also, anybody who learns about Bockbier from this blog, develops a liking for it, and then goes to Texas: Shiner Bock is not at all a proper Bockbier. It’s a pretty bland dark lager, but it’s not bad if you can’t get anything better (though these days you usually can).

Actually most the crafty beer that keeps popping up in stores here is based on types of hops that were rediscovered by craft beer freaks from the US, who had enough “Leidensdruck” to take action … PBR and craft beer… no light without darkness.